Compass Campaign: Scholarship Endowment

Veronica Sanchez

Former member of the African American and Latino Parents Association & former SI Parent

My SI Story

Immigrant parents should consider SI as an option. It’s an important first step for their sons and daughters to reach the American Dream, so they might enter prominent colleges and become professionals.

As a child of immigrants, I relied on a scholarship to help me attend college and law school. I know first-hand the importance of financial assistance.

That’s why our family supports the SI Scholarship Fund.

We donated to the Arrupe Fund because many SI students need help beyond tuition to pay for books, field trips, retreats, prom bids and graduation gowns. The Arrupe Fund offers these young men and women a chance to be full members of the SI family.

As the mother of a son who is both Latino and Jewish, I hope to promote ethnic and socio-economic diversity at SI. To be successful in this global world, students will need to know how to work in a multicultural society with people from all walks of life. SI teaches students cultural sensitivity and empathy towards others.

In his junior year at SI, my son went to Costa Rica on an immersion experience to study the impact of tourism on an agricultural community. Thanks to that rich experience, he is studying Spanish and International Relations at the University of Washington, and when he travels, he asks whether tourist resorts provide sustainable benefits for the community.

Without diversity, SI would be sterile, devoid of cultural richness. At SI, students have opportunities to develop relationships with students from various ethnic, cultural and income groups. Their SI experience may lead them one day to become philanthropists and help others reach the American Dream.